campbell county chamber of commerce

On February 12, the Wyoming State Chamber of Commerce released the following information following the State of the State address.

The budget session will run for 20 working days until Friday, March 9, 2018. As of today there are 222 bills and resolutions currently listed on the Wyoming Legislature website. Bills can be found here. New bills are being added daily with an expected total bill load of about 300.

As a number of bills that could impact the businesses that operate in your communities have and will continue to emerge in the coming weeks, and your State Chamber will be very closely monitoring them as they are posted and engaging as necessary.

The following list is comprised of the bills currently listed, related to the Wyoming State Chamber of Commerce and our legislative priorities in Wyoming. This list will be updated weekly. Please watch for the WSC legislative update every Monday for additions and up to date information on our legislative priorities.

Wyoming Office of Tourism Biennium BudgetThe Joint Appropriations Committee is recommending the Wyoming Office of Tourism (WOT) biennium budget at approximately $12.5 million per year or $25 million for the biennium. The committee upheld cuts that the Governor requested the WOT to make earlier in the year of about $200,000. Additionally the committee earmarked approximately $200,000 to promote southwest Wyoming. Wyoming currently ranks 31st in the nation for tourism funding and there will no doubt be proposed cuts to the budget as lawmakers grapple with a $600 million shortfall in education funding.

Wyoming Business Council Biennium BudgetGovernor Mead’s biennium budget recommendation for the Wyoming Business Council was flat vs. the last biennium. The Joint Appropriations Committee applied a cut of about $380,000 that Governor Mead had originally requested the agency to make but then did not include in his budget recommendation.

HB 13- Municipal extraterritorial jurisdiction-repealWithin one mile of municipality, assuming the potential for annexation in the future, new business would need to be built to municipal standards and would be developers responsibility up front. County commissioners would have final say.

HB 45- Mountain Daylight Savings TimeWould place Wyoming on standard central time, eliminate daylight savings time (spring forward and fall back) and creating a new time zone called mountain daylight savings time

HB 51- Reporting of Gross ReceiptsWould require businesses in Wyoming to report their gross receipts on their annual filings to the Secretary of State’s office so that the state could gather data about gross receipts in Wyoming to possibly be used later when considering a gross receipts tax.

SF 18 – Orphan Site Remediation FundingNon-interest bearing loans available for corrective action related to above and below ground storage tanks and solid waste landfill remediation. This bill adds orphaned sites to the list making these loans available to orphaned sites for remediation as well.

ENDOW Related BillsGovernor Mead’s Economically Needed Diversification of Wyoming (ENDOW) Committee released their initial recommendations last month and the following are bills related to the advancement of ENDOW’s mission.

Economic Diversification and Development (no bill number yet)Directs the Wyoming Business Council to develop new markets, expand foreign trade efforts, including expanding international markets for Wyoming services, agriculture, products and commodities. The bill also directs ENDOW to develop a strategy for small, regionally located beef processing plants and mid-large sized plants for international sales. The bill expands the ENDOW committee from 15 to 20 appointed members and directs the committee to review and develop further opportunity for career tech education opportunities in Wyoming.

Workforce development-priority economic sector program.(no bill number yet)Establishes the Wyoming workforce development-priority economic sector partnership program to meet the training needs of existing businesses in the state and to provide incentives to businesses to locate and expand within the state through government assisted new jobs training. Appropriates $20 million to the program.

Start Up Wyoming-Economic Diversification (no bill number yet)Provides for matching funds for the small business innovation research program; creating the Wyoming research and innovation program, the startup Wyoming and kick start Wyoming programs and houses the programs under the Wyoming Business Council. Creates an economic diversification account and appropriates $11 million to the programs listed. Directs the WBC to present a proposal to ENDOW that will assist businesses within the state in priority economic sectors identified in the approved twenty (20) year comprehensive economic diversification strategy no later than July 1, 2018.

SF 40 Commercial Air Service ImprovementEstablishes the Wyoming Commercial Air Service Improvement Act and creates the Wyoming Commercial Air Service Improvement Council. Tasks the Council with developing a 10 year plan to address commercial air service in Wyoming.

During the session you can contact a legislator to leave a message by calling the Senate receptionist at 307-777-7711 or the House receptionist at 307-777-7852.

To check on committee schedules, view bills, listen to live broadcasts of the legislative session or find out how individual legislators vote, log on to the Legislative website at http://legisweb.state.wy.us